Turkeys Policy Towards Northern Iraq

This paper explores the background to Turkey's Kurdish perspectives, an account and analysis of more recent developments, and a consideration of some possible futures and the factors that might encourage or thwart their emergence.

The American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 has affected Turkey's foreign policy in unpredictable ways. On the one hand stood Turkey's vital alliance with the US, stretching back to the early days of the cold war; on the other, the strong opposition of the Turkish people to the invasion of Iraq. One of Iraq's most important neighbours and America's only formal ally in the region, Turkey gave vital support to the US during the first Gulf war. In the second Gulf war, America sought to project itself as the champion of democracy in the Middle East. Turkey, as the only Muslim country in the region with an acceptably democratic form of government, refused to support the US strategy. The challenge faced by the Turkish government has been to sustain good relations with the superpower, while remaining answerable to its own people. To explain Turkey's changing foreign policy, William Hale examines the relationship between Turkey, the US and Iraq since the 1920s, when the Iraqi state was first established. He also analyses Turkey's policies towards Iraqi Kurds and its 'Europeanisation' as the country aligns itself with the EU. Among the first books to assess the ups and downs in relations between Turkey and the U.S. ... Provides the reader a broader perspective from which to understand those relations, especially in the context of Iraq.' Kiliç Bugra Kanat 'This is an excellent and timely book.' B. A. Yesilada, Portland State University

"Throughout the 1990s, Turkey was the anchor in the containment of Saddam Hussein's Iraq by the United States. The unpredictable set of events unleashed by Operation Iraqi Freedom has unnerved both Turkish decision makers and the public alike. The U.S.-led coalition's operation in Iraq has also upended Turkey's fundamental interests in Iraq, which are fourfold: (1) Prevent the division of Iraq along sectarian or ethnic lines that would give rise to an independent or confederal Kurdish state (with the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as its capital), thus supporting aspirations for a similar entity in Turkey's own extensive Kurdish population. (2) Protect the Turkish-speaking Turkmen minority, which resides primarily in northern Iraq. (3) Eliminate the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Turkish Kurdish insurgent movement, which has sought refuge in the northeast of Iraq following its defeat in 1999. (4) Prevent the emergence of a potentially hostile nondemocratic fundamentalist Iraqi state"--Summary.

This book explores key historical episodes to understand the reasons and consequences of the enduring partiality problem in cooperation between Turkey and Iraq. Notwithstanding their mutual material interdependence and common cultural heritage, these two close neighbors have stayed far from achieving comprehensive cooperation. The author examines contextual-discursive dynamics shaping Turkey-Iraq partial cooperation around critical events, such as the Saadabad-Baghdad pacts, the Gulf War, the US Invasion, and the war against ISIS. Leading pro-government Turkish daily newspapers of the period are analyzed to highlight ambivalent ontological-rhetorical modes and ambiguous political narratives-frames that perpetuate paradoxes of partiality in Ankara’s rationalization and contextualization of cooperation with Baghdad and Erbil.

U.S.-Turkish relations, long a vital element of U.S. policy, have seriously deteriorated in recent years. However, the arrival of a new U.S. administration offers an opportunity to repair recent fissures. Priority should be given to harmonizing policy toward Iraq and the Middle East as well as Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Explains the trajectory of Turkish foreign policy behavior vis-...-vis the West, identifying the major factors behind intra-alliance opposition.

The combination of the war in Syria and the rise of ISIS has increased the role of non-state actors in the Middle East politics. This is of particular concern for Turkey, on account of its long-standing concerns regarding Kurdish nationalism, particularly after the Syrian war, which provides Kurds with a significant role in regional security affairs. This book aims to examine the regional impacts of the Turkish government’s Zero Policy with Neighbors (ZPN) in respect to Iraqi Kurdistan. This has been achieved through an analysis of the impact on the ZPN policy of the following non-state actors between 2011 and 2016: The Syrian Kurdish group represented by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), ISIS, and the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK).

The authors describe the challenges and opportunities facing Turkey in the international environment during a time of extraordinary flux. Special emphasis is given to the strategic and security issues facing Turkey, including a number of new issues posed by the terrorist attacks of September 2001 and the subsequent international response. They conclude by offering some prognostications regarding the country's future and their implications on Turkey's western partners.

Asa Lundgren explores Turkish policy towards northern Iraq from the beginning of the 1990s to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and draws important conclusions about the relation between nation-building and foreign policy. The author argues that there is a crucial interplay between the protection of state borders, foreign policy practice and the construction of national identity. Turkey's policy towards northern Iraq during the last decade can be described as a balancing act where the integrity of the Turkish-Iraqi border was firmly defended by Ankara, while at the same time it was consistently violated through Turkish military incursions against a perceived Kurdish threat and by the permanent military presence of the Turkish army on Iraqi territory. The author's highly original proposition is that Ankara's policy opposition to all attempts to break up Iraq along ethnic lines was a mirror image of an almost obession-like concern with the unity of the Turkish nation state.